Hugo Chavez and Moctezuma

By Tirso Suarez

18.05.06 | Montezuma’s Revenge, also called by some the Aztec Two-Step, was identified for generations throughout Latin America with the diarrhea, flatulence and gastric distress that tourists suffer after drinking bad water. However, if President Hugo Chavez gets his way, the name “Montezuma” will soon be associated directly with Hugo Chavez Frias, president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and self-proclaimed leader of the new 21st century revolutionary socialism. Why? Because Chavez is convinced that he is a direct blood descendant of the Emperor Montezuma, the last lord of Aztec Mexica empire before Hernan Cortes arrived with a handful of homicidal Conquistadors backed the Holy Roman Catholic God, the Spanish Crown and a large number of pissed off local indigenous tribespeople who were sick and tired of being the sacrificial slaves of the Aztec Emperors.

Experts with the “Leon de la Cordillera” Genealogical Society, which is based in the city of Bocono in Trujillo state, are working with officials in Miraflores presidential palace in an effort to confirm that President Chavez is, indeed, a blood descendant of the Emperor Montezuma. The director of the aforementioned genealogical society in Bocono is Rafael Angel Romero Merino (C.I. 9,370,186). This individual’s main contact in Miraflores palace is Freddy Baptista, whose official title is “Adviser to the President of the Republic.”

The president’s genealogical experts have focused their historical research on the city of Guanare in Portuguesa state, the figure of Francisco Moctezuma (who is also called the “Regidor Perpetuo de Guanare”), and the last names Moctezuma and Unda. The research reportedly has gone back more than 20 generations so far, and the genealogical tree where Chavez hopes to nail down his blood parentage with Montezuma already totals at least 6,812 people (as of January 2006). Moreover, the governments of Spain and Mexico have already been consulted officially on the matter.

Specifically, the president’s genealogists seeking to confirm his royal indigenous lineage have asked the governments of Mexico and Spain to confirm (or disprove?) the existence of blood links between Venezuelan residents of Guanare in Portuguesa state and the Emperor Montezuma. Two names in particular are being investigated in Guanare: Moctezuma and Unda (or Hunda). Chavez asserts his royal lineage to Montezuma based, in part, on the following maternal genealogical tree:

* General Pedro Perez Delgado (Maisanta) sired a son, Rafael Infante, with a woman named Claudina Infante. Rafael was a “natural” son, meaning that he was born out of legal wedlock, and his father never officially recognized paternity, which is why Rafael took his mother’s last name, Infante. The Bolivarian myth is that Maisanta was a great patriot, warrior and leader. However, serious historians view Maisanta as a murderer, cattle rustler and all around bandit.

* Rafael Infante had a daughter, Rosa Elena Frias, with a woman named Benita Frias Frias. Rosa Elena, the president’s mother, apparently also was a natural child. The president’s maternal grandmother, Benita, was the natural child of Juan Pablo Frias and Marta Frias. Here is where the link with the Emperor Montezuma apparently surfaces: Juan Pablo Frias was the natural child of Eloy Hunda Marquez of Guanare and a woman named Eliza Frias.

* Hunda Marquez reportedly was a direct blood descendant of the Emperor Montezuma, according to the genealogical tree attached to a document dated January 2, 2006 and addressed to the “Licenciado Freddy Jacob Baptista Gonzalez” in Miraflores.

The trail stops there, at least in the documents we have obtained. It’s not clear how it was confirmed that Hunda Marquez bears Montezuma’s blood. It’s also not clear what, if any, family links might exist between the Hunda family name and Francisco Moctezuma of Guanare.

According to the genealogical experts we consulted, there are some problems with Chavez’s claim that he is a blood descendant of Montezuma.

First, the claim that Hunda Marquez was a blood descendant of Montezuma has yet to be confirmed. The Spanish Conquistadors and Colonials kept detailed family records for reasons of politics, business and family honor. However, the Spaniards were indifferent to “natural” sons and daughters who were never officially acknowledged by their fathers, and therefore had no legal rights to the titles, wealth, property and last name of the fathers. Moreover, only upper class families typically kept track of their genealogy.

Second, the family tree has several generations of natural children, meaning that the fathers never acknowledged their paternity legally, and may not, in fact, be the real fathers of the children they are identified as having sired.

Third, the claim that Maisanta sired the president’s great-grandmother cannot be verified. For genealogists, the president’s claim isn’t sufficient to establish the relationship. In fact, some genealogical experts and historians believe it is very likely that Maisanta may not have been the father of Rafael Infante, and that Claudina Infante may have been one of many camp followers who got passed around the fire in the bandit world’s sexually promiscuous equivalent of ring-around-the-rosey. While this point is unrelated to Chavez’s claim that Montezuma was one of his ancestors, it is worth mentioning as yet another example of the intellectual and academic sloppiness of the Bolivarian historical myth.

President Chavez, however, isn’t the only Venezuelan leader with alleged blood ties to the Emperor Montezuma. Two other past presidents, Raimundo Andueza Palacios and Victorino Marquez Bustillos, both from Guanare, also were direct descendants of the last Aztec Emperor, according to the documents in our possession, which originated in Miraflores.

Beyond gratifying his immense, narcissistic ego, Chavez could potentially get some political mileage if he could successfully trace his blood lineage to Montezuma’s loins:

* If Chavez could legitimately claim some of Montezuma’s genes, he could project himself in the Americas as a true indigenous leader, and a royal one at that. Hypothetically this would relegate indigenous Bolivian leaders like Evo Morales and Felipe Quispe to a secondary status (at least in Chavez’s mind), since the Venezuelan president doesn’t recognize anyone’s leadership except his own.

* If Chavez and Montezuma were blood relatives, the Venezuelan president might demand that the United States return to its rightful owner – meaning Chavez – all of the territory the U.S. “stole” from Mexico, including California and Texas. Chavez also could demand thnat Mexico be returned to the descendant of the Aztecs. This may sound crazy, but is there anything in Chavez’s history over the past seven years that suggests he would not make such crazed demands?

* Chavez is already on record as seeking the title of president-for-life by amending the Bolivarian Constitution to allow his unlimited re-election. Chavez said recently he wants to stay in power until at least 2031. Imagine Chavez being introduced in the future at one of his political rallies, like the spectacle he staged in Vienna much to the anger and embarrassment of the Austrian government: “Introducing Hugo Chavez, president-for-life of Venezuela; commander in chief of the Bolivarian Armed Forces, civilian reserve and territorial guard; leader of the Bolivarian Revolution; co-president of Cubazuela; and Montezuma’s only true heir to the throne of Emperor of the Indigenous Nations of Latin America!” The music will blare and hundreds of paid revolutionary cheerleaders, sprinkled with assorted European and American asshole armchair commies, will grunt in intellectually constipated unison, “Uh! Ah! Chavez no se va!” Chavez also could start to include in his musical performance repertoire rancheras with verses like “Sigo siendo el Rey” – although quite obviously a King’s Crown would be small potatoes for the man who would be Emperor.

In summary, while Chavez’s quest to prove his blood lineage to Montezuma is laughably absurd, it is also somehow fitting that Venezuela’s erratic and mentally unstable president should seek to prove that he is Montezuma’s heir. After all, Montezuma was a failed Emperor who presided over a bloody and corrupt tyranny that enslaved and slaughtered weaker indigenous peoples, and who today is remembered popularly mainly by travel agencies and tourists that equate the name Montezuma with diarrhea, farts and gastric eruptions that leave the taste of vomit in one’s mouth.